Prevalence of atopy in children with celiac disease

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Aim: Celiac disease (CD) is an autoimmune disorder caused by dietary gluten. There are only a few studies reporting on the prevalence of atopy in CD and the results are conflicting. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence of atopy in CD patients. Material and Methods: A total of 97 children with confirmed CD and a control group of 95 age-and gender-matched healthy controls were included in the study. The immunoglobulin (Ig) A-G-E-M levels, complete blood count, Phadiatop and milk-egg-rice-wheat specific (sp) IgE were assessed and skin prick tests (SPTs) were applied. Results: The CD patients comprised 51 (52.6%) girls and 46 (47.4%) boys with a mean age of 10.3 4.8 (range, 1-16) years. The median level of IgE, total eosinophil count, Phadiatop, food sp IgE, and SPT positivity were significantly higher in CD patients compared to healthy controls (p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.001, p=0.013, respectively). No positive reaction was detected in any of the participants in the oral food challenge test. The prevalence of atopy in the CD patients was higher than that of control group (29.9% vs. 11.0%). Moreover, six patients with CD were diagnosed with allergic diseases. Discussion: The incidence of atopy was found to be higher in CD patients than in healthy children.